Red Wolves outplayed on the road against Mountaineers

Line play key as Appalachian State whips A- State

A-State Sports BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State hardly looked rusty.

Playing for the first time since Sept. 26, the fourtime defending Sun Belt Conference champions opened a 24-point halftime lead Thursday night against Arkansas State and cruised to a 45-17 victory at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

The Mountaineers (3-1, 1-0 Sun Belt) controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football in their conference opener. App State held a 305-73 advantage in rushing yards while averaging 6.9 yards per carry on offense and recording six quarterback sacks on defense.

A-State (3-3, 1-2 Sun Belt) was unable to reach its season passing averages against the Mountaineers’ stingy secondary. The Red Wolves had 295 passing yards, but no passing touchdowns after producing 14 in their previous two games combined.

“Obviously not how we wanted it to go. We knew they were a good football team, a lot of seniors, a lot of veterans,” Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson said. “They are just really, really physical and big on both fronts, and that’s really where it started and kind of ended. They owned both lines of scrimmage and we knew that was something where we were going to have to do a better job than we have the last couple of weeks to have a chance to win.”

A-State trailed 31-7 at halftime after App State scored the final 24 points of the first half. The Red Wolves cut their deficit to 14 points in the third quarter before the Mountaineers scored the last two touchdowns.

Logan Bonner and Layne Hatcher combined to complete 22-of-41 passes for 295 yards and an interception. Bonner was 13-of-25 for 117 yards and Hatcher finished 9-of-16 for 178 yards.

Jonathan Adams Jr. led the Red Wolves in receiving with six catches for 134 yards.

“We felt like we had an advantage in the throw game, but you have to be able to protect to do that and we didn’t do a great job of that,” Anderson said. “We needed to be more balanced and offensively when you look at the fact that the defense gave them two turnovers and we had an onside kick that we recovered, basically three turnovers, and we get zero points out of those three, that kind of tells you the story.”

The Red Wolves yielded 521 total yards in their first game under interim defensive coordinator Nick Paremski. Zac Thomas, now 26-4 as App State’s starting quarterback, completed 16-of-23 passes for 216 yards and four touchdowns. Thomas added 82 yards rushing and another touchdown.

The Mountaineers converted seven of nine third downs in the first half and 10 of 15 for the game.

“I’m proud of how they created the turnovers, but didn’t make them punt once in the first half and that makes it tough,” Anderson said of ASU’s defense. “We gave up a couple of big, big runs and we got caught in a coverage and they isolated us in the coverage. Once we gave up the 21 points, I thought they settled down

Continued on Page 15

Photo courtesy of A-State ARKANSAS STATE (cont.)

and played better.”

The Mountaineers scored first on Thomas’ 46-yard pass to Christian Wells, but the Red Wolves tied the game 7-7 on Jamal Jones’ 8-yard touchdown run with 6:26 left in the first quarter. Hatcher threw a 42-yard pass to Adams during an eight-play, 77-yard drive.

App State regained the lead on Daetrich Harrington’s 55-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter. The Mountaineers drove 88 yards in 17 plays for their next touchdown, which came on Thomas’ 5-yard pass to Mike Evans in the second quarter.

The Mountaineers extended their lead to 24-7 on a 39yard field goal by Chandler Staton and added another touchdown with just over a minute left in the half on Thomas’ 16-yard pass to Malik Williams.

A-State scored the first 10 points of the second half to pull within 31-17. Bonner led a 57-yard drive that culminated in Grupe’s 34yard field goal and Lincoln Pare broke a 48-yard touchdown run with 2:08 left in the third quarter, aided by a downfield block by Adams.

A-State’s momentum faded as Thomas took a quarterback draw 60 yards for a touchdown on third-and-14 with 15 seconds left in the third quarter.

“They caught us in a coverage that makes us really shorthanded in the box and he’s a guy who can run,” Anderson said. “That’s one of those we’d like to have back.”

Hatcher threw an interception in the end zone under pressure and the Mountaineers followed with a scoring drive capped by Thomas’ 20-yard touchdown

8:22 left in the game.

A-State returns home to face Troy next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.